Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal: Arsenal grind out a win

Arsenal went ahead within two minutes, then sat uncharacteristically deep for the remainder of the game.

Tim Sherwood made four changes from the side that lost to Benfica, with Nacer Chadli in the number ten role and Nabil Bentaleb returning to the side.

Arsene Wenger named his expecting starting XI, in a 4-3-3 shape with Mikel Arteta as the holding midfielder.

Spurs had plenty of possession, but failed to find an equaliser.

Arsenal lead shapes game

Arsenal took the lead within two minutes through a stunning Tomas Rosicky, strike after he darted forward to combine with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain on the counter-attack, and from then the pattern of the game was set. Spurs needed to dominate possession and force the issue, while Arsenal had already proved their best route to goal was by attacking directly from deep.

It means the nature of the Arsenal performance has to be viewed in the context of the game state, but this was the most reactive performance you’ll find from an Arsene Wenger side – Arsenal completed their fewest passes in a league game for five years. Did Arsenal deliberately play in this fashion because of tactical reasons, or was it a mere result of going ahead so early?

The truth is probably somewhere in between – Arsenal weren’t going to be as positive as usual, but the early lead exaggerated the reactivity.

Arsenal counters provide goal threat and push Spurs back

Either way, Arsenal repeatedly threatened on the counter-attack. Lukas Podolski played the purest counter-attacking role, staying high up on the left and breaking in behind the defence repeatedly, although the runs of Oxlade-Chamberlain continued to threaten, and he missed Arsenal’s clearest chance when completely fluffing a one-on-one when running through into the inside-right channel.

The fact Arsenal possessed such a counter-attacking threat throughout the first half meant Spurs were reluctant to commit too many men into attack, particularly the full-backs. Danny Rose had been caught out, in advance of the ball, for Arsenal’s opener, while Naughton was scared of Podolski attacking in behind him, too. It meant Spurs had plenty of possession but rarely attacked in great numbers until after half-time.

Spurs high line

Spurs made it very easy for Arsenal to counter-attack in behind throughout the first half, because they played a extraordinarily high defensive line. At one point, after twelve minutes, Mikel Arteta had the ball in space, five yards inside his own half, in the centre circle. The Spurs defence was positioned just 15 yards inside their own half, with acres of space behind them.

In the next three minutes, Arsenal got in behind three times: Podolski was (probably wrongly) flagged offside on the left, Oxlade-Chamberlain got in behind for his chance, running half the pitch with the ball and beating just one challenge, on the halfway line, and Hugo Lloris stereotypically swept quickly from his line to prevent Olivier Giroud reaching a simple Santi Cazorla knock over the top.

This was a throwback to the Andre Villas-Boas days, and again, the problem was the high defensive line and the lack of pressure on the ball. This hasn’t been an obvious feature of Spurs’ play under Sherwood, but it’s easy to pinpoint the major reason why they shifted much higher up the pitch – it was only the second game all season Michael Dawson hasn’t started. Very slow on the turn, Dawson looked uncomfortable in Villas-Boas’ high line and has preferred defending deep under Sherwood – his absence meant Sherwood was keener to push his side up the pitch. The fact Spurs were playing against Giroud, whose lack of his pace is unquestionably his major weakness, certainly contributed.

Despite these logical reasons, however, the fact remains Spurs played the tactic poorly. The Oxlade-Chamberlain chance was the perfect example – Jan Vertonghen followed Giroud over towards the touchline, but Kaboul doesn’t even attempt to get in a covering position, opening up half the pitch for Arsenal to break into. Spurs had forgotten how to play this way – if they ever knew in the first place.

Midfield zone

The midfield zone was fast-paced but scrappy throughout. This game had 29 fouls, eight yellow cards and both sides recorded pass completion rates significantly below their average this season, which isn’t entirely surprising in a derby.

Nothing particularly interesting happened in this zone – the midfields were matched closely, and no-one showed great invention on the ball, with Oxlade-Chamberlain’s forward running the only interesting feature.

Spurs would have liked more invention from their midfield. Sandro and Nabil Bentaleb ensured they dominated possession, but it felt like those two were playing the same role – or, at least, covering the duties a top-class holding midfielder could have done solo, holding his position and distributing the ball reliably. Neither attempted to break beyond Chadli regularly.

Spurs’ play was predictable, with only Christian Eriksen’s drifts inside overloading Arsenal. Andros Townsend looks less dangerous by the match, because he has so consistently (at club level, at least) proved he offers absolutely no end product. In 19 league appearances, he’s scored one goal (an overhit cross) and recorded no assists.

Adebayor influence

The major reason Spurs have collected points under Sherwood (despite appearing bafflingly short of a football identity) is Emmanuel Adebayor, revitalised and firing under the new regime. Although his performances have dipped in recent weeks, he’s always up for a scrap against his former club – and he dominated the first half here, with Spurs’ best moments coming when they simply chipped the ball in behind for him to chase.

Adebayor, at his best, is a tremendous all-rounder – he offers aerial strength to battle against the centre-backs, but also acceleration and outright pace to sprint in behind. Therefore, it’s difficult for opponents to know whether to sit deep (to negate his pace, but leave themselves exposed to his aerial power) or push up (nullifying his aerial power, but allowing him space to break into). Few other Premier League strikers give opposition defenders such a dilemma (Romelu Lukaku, Danny Welbeck and Jay Rodriguez would be three arguable examples), which doesn’t mean that it’s easier to play against, for example, Sergio Aguero – but at least there’s an obvious way to play against him. With Adebayor, defenders have to find a balance.

This was a real test for Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, but they emerged as the game’s best players. In fact, they were the perfect combination to play against Adebayor as they cover both bases – Mertesacker fights in the air, Koscielny has great acceleration. Of course, any half-decent striker is intelligent enough to realise this and take on the other at their ‘weak’ suit, which means Adebayor often battled against Koscielny in the air.

Arsenal lose counter-attacking threat

In basic terms, the second half followed the same pattern of Spurs possession…but Arsenal suddenly became extremely sloppy with their passing. They were still attempting to break, and therefore tried ambitious passes into attack rather than retaining the ball for long spells, but this doesn’t excuse the regularity with which they handed possession back to Spurs.

The lack of counter-attacking threat, particularly as their attackers tired, meant Spurs could throw more players forward. Rose and Naughton advanced to cross the more, and now Arsenal were under serious pressure, with Wojciech Szczesny making a couple of errors to gift Spurs chances.

Lack of Spurs cohesion

There was still no obvious way Spurs were attempting to make the breakthrough, however, and there’s still a complete lack of cohesion and mutual understanding between the Spurs players. They certainly had pressure, they were unfortunate not to score on a couple of occasions, but there was barely a moment of genuinely good football – they simply ramped up the pressure and prayed for a mistake. When the error came, through Szczesny, they didn’t take dvantage.

Sherwood made progressive substitutions – Paulinho on for Sandro to provide more forward thrust from midfield, then Gylfi Sigurdsson for Nacer Chadli – the Icelandic international went left, with Eriksen as number ten – and then finally Roberto Soldado for Eriksen, and Spurs to 4-4-2. More players were in dangerous positions and getting inside the box, and Arsenal were never entirely comfortable.

Eventually Arsenal were 5-4-1 and sitting very deep, with Vermaelen’s introduction forcing a reshuffle at the back – he played to the left, and Koscielny went to the right of Mertesacker. These changes aren’t typical for Wenger, but this season his substitutions when ahead have been much more pragmatic, and here he helped Arsenal record a clean sheet by ensuring he had a spare man at the back after Soldado’s introduction.

Conclusion

Tottenham’s continued pressure should have resulted in goals, but they only had two shots on target in the game. Many of their shots were blocked – including one once Szczesny was beaten – and this was an unusual feature of Arsenal’s game. They recorded ten blocks, their highest number since Opta started recording this feature in 2006.

The most interesting feature of the game was the positioning of the two sides as a whole – Spurs extremely high, Arsenal unusually deep. Ultimately, neither side did enough with the ball.

13 Responses to “ Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal: Arsenal grind out a win ”

D on March 17, 2014 at 11:30 am

This game highlighted yet again the weaknesses of both sides.
Spurs lack guile and creativity to their play, relying too much on the inspiration of Adebayor. They also continue to deploy the high line very poorly. They need to use Eriksen as much as possible and either press more intelligently or drop deeper.
Arsenal lack genuine pace and recently their combination play (traditionally their greatest strength) has been poor. They need Ozil (to improve possession) and Ramey/Ox (to provide verticality).

jgooders on March 17, 2014 at 12:13 pm

Also interesting that the weaknesses were in evidence in the reverse fixture in the league (though walcott played so arsenal weren’t short of pace) – in fact it was practically the same game. It’s strange that Tottenham have replaced one coach with someone you’d think of as his polar opposite yet in this game at least performed identically to how they did before

Scott on March 17, 2014 at 11:58 pm

You could argue that is why Sherwood chose to set his team out the way he did(Arsenal could’ve prepared to play a deeper side, but their early goal meant a change in things)

jgooders on March 17, 2014 at 12:10 pm

Any explanation for why Arsenal can’t seem to string three passes together against decent opposition?

Ryan on March 17, 2014 at 2:23 pm

No pace to stretch the pitch closes options for 3 behind Giroud. Stop the ball being played through Arteta and Arsenal struggle to control possession. Injuries have derailed the seriousness of Arsenal’s title aspirations, even with Walcott, Ramsey I think they would be slightly short.

I think it has more to do with players such as Arteta, Flamini, Oxlade-Chamberlain and even Wilshere and Ramsey not being top class passing midfielders.
Ox and Wilshere want to go into a dribble mostly, Ramsey was developing into a Lampard-type allround goal-scoring midfielder, and Flamini is mostly a destroyer. Arteta is the one who is most suited to be the distributor from midfield but his vision from that position is often rather poor. An Andrea Pirlo or Xabi Alonso do a great job of observing the whole pitch, while Arteta takes a touch to one side of the pitch which robs him of possible passing options to his back side.

So Arsenal lack a central midfielder who is really good at recycling the ball, finding a solid pass and once in a while playing a good defense opening ball from deep. It does not help that the centre backs are at best average at bringing the ball out from the back.

So there are lots of calls for a high class centre forward, but Arsenal could also do with a good regista as well. But honestly I struggle to name a realistic summer target for them, since guys such as Illarramendi, Marco Veratti and (because of injury) Kevin Strootman are probably out of the question. The best name i could come up with is Granit Xhaka of Borussia Moenchengladbach but he is not quite the best fit.

Phil on March 17, 2014 at 6:33 pm

I can’t understand why Spurs still mess around with playing a high line when they seem reluctant to pressurize the opposition, which is a must if your going to hold a high line. AVB was maybe stubborn in his methods as he always persisted with the high line even without the proper personal (dawson he seems very uncomfortable in that role) and without any pressing in midfield. After Rosicky’s goal and Arsenals easy penetration of Spurs back four I felt like it was going to be Liverpool at the Lane all over again.

It seems like Spurs struggle to find the proper midfield trio. especially in the 2 central midfield roles. It seems like too often the players cancel each other out and are more or less playing the same role. Either that or they just aren’t sure of there role as a collective midfield unit. I really thought Paulinho would be the answer in the summer. he was billed as a Brazilian Frank Lampard because of his forward runs from midfield and goal scoring ability. I figured he and Sandro would be a perfect match but it seems like Paulinho, Dembele, Bentaleb, and Capoue are all very similar. they don’t offer any threat at goal because they just don’t make any forwards runs.

I have no idea what the solution to this problem will be??

Buffaluffasaurus on March 17, 2014 at 11:37 pm

Michael’s analysis is good as always, even though painful reading as a Spurs fan.

You’re right in that the midfield zone is our biggest problem. There has been a complete lack of consistency in team selection, which is hurting the overall fluidity and understanding in attack. The team, for all its possession, is completely blunt because without true understanding, they constantly play safe balls sideways and backwards to each other. It’s absolutely galling to me that with eight games to go we still do not have a clear best starting XI. It seems to change with every match, even without midweek games. Part of it has been us being unusually unlucky with injuries, but it has felt for most of the season that both Sherwood and AVB have just been randomly tinkering like a child playing with a Rubik’s Cube, hoping that eventually they’ll luck onto the right combination.

A big problem is overbuying in some areas such as central midfield (where it is hard to pick a single standout player who should always start), and a clutch moderately talented wingers, none of whom have true game-changing potential. No one save for Adebayor, Walker and Lloris are crying out to be picked through performances alone. Michael’s right in saying that our deep-lying midfielders are two average people doing the job of one good player… had we bought a single player like Matic instead of two in Capoue and Paulinho, we’d arguably be in a much better position. The last minute transfer window cock-up of missing out on Moutinho looks more and more damning with each passing game.

At present, we have virtually no penetration from midfield into attacking zones, which is why Wenger can cynically sit deep all game and know we can’t hurt them. Adebayor has kept us fifth with sheer physicality and force of will alone, but performance-wise I’m still surprised we’re still above Everton and Man Utd.

One of the best defensive displays I’ve ever seen from a defender by Mertesacker yesterday. Positionally absolutely spot on every time, excellent in the air, and composed in possession also. Koscielny very good as well.

It needs to be questioned as to why Wenger didn’t buy a world class striker in January, it’s costing them in my opinion. Giroud looks absolutely knackered, surely the reason Spurs went with such a high line yesterday was because Giroud offers absolutely no threat in behind? They could have been exposed more with a pacy striker yesterday, but Giroud can’t do it. They missed Walcott yesterday, he’d have been a huge threat up against that defence. If Giroud isn’t running in behind, he needs to hold play up better, but so many times yesterday he was getting beaten to the ball, and play was just going straight back onto Arsenal.

Impressed with The Ox in midfield, centrally definitely his best position. His pacy, powerful bursts through the midfield are impressive, and he’s good for teams on the counter attacks, what do people think about him playing centrally for England at the world cup?

Manuel on March 17, 2014 at 10:38 pm

“Of course, any half-decent striker is intelligent enough to realise this and take on the other at their ‘weak’ suit, which means Adebayor often battled against Koscielny in the air.”

Isn’t this more a matter of where the ball is being played into than whom the striker wants to challenge? If the ball is played in such a way that it’s Mertesacker challenging for it in the air, then the striker can hardly choose to compete with Koscielny instead.

Friedrich on March 18, 2014 at 3:04 pm

@Manuel

Which is why Adebayor often positioned himself close to Koscielny’s side, so that his teammates could cross the ball into his path, thereby setting him up for aerial duels with Koscielny. That’s what Mark meant by ‘take on the other at their ‘weak’ suit’.

Friedrich on March 18, 2014 at 3:09 pm

Sorry, not Mark, I meant the author of this analysis.

Jasper on March 18, 2014 at 7:57 pm

Michael, you’re always great at bucking conventional wisdom in your match analyses. The way the punditry insisted that Spurs played very well and deserved something from the game has been silly.

Adebayor was very good and missed a couple difficult volleys and half-chances, but the Spurs attacking players created little, as has been the case since Sherwood took over. Chadli, while a good player, has looked terrible for Spurs nearly every time I’ve seen him. Their ponderous and uncoordinated attacking play is reminiscent of the worst part of Arsenal’s attacking play last season. Also similar to what’s going on at United. Sherwood and Moyes both set their teams out in very static positions and try and rely on individualism to beat teams that are better prepared than they are.

For all his cynicism in selection and playing style this season, at least Mourinho recognizes the need to give your front players more freedom to move across the pitch and create/exploit space.